The present invention concerns a variable dashpot for motor vehicles.
Dashpots are manufactured variable to allow driving to be adapted to varying road conditions. Extra variable bypasses are for this purpose associated with the flow-control valves in the device's piston. Control is usually exerted by electronic programs in accordance with such parameters as speed, steering-wheel state, and running dynamics. To ensure particularly fine tuning, the bypass must feature at least two mutually dependently controlled channels.
Bypass systems of this genus are known from German 4 020 045 C1 and German 19 836 288 A1. There is a drawback to these bypasses, which have at least two channels, in that the channel can only be opened and closed sequentially. This can be done incrementally as disclosed in 4 020 045 C1 or continuously as disclosed in 19 836 288 A1.
The object of the present invention is to improve a hydraulic dashpot of the aforesaid genus to the extent that the at least two bypass channels, although they can be opened and closed mutually dependently, need not be opened and closed sequentially.
The dashpot in accordance with the present invention has several advantages, especially in that the widths of the bypass and the widths of the channels can be varied to obtain almost any desired performance curve even though the individual channels are controlled by only one set of controls and hence only by way of a single drive mechanism associated with the controls.
Although using a slide provided with a variable breach to control a bypass is known from German 10 040 518, no one of skill in the art would derive from that document any intimation as to employing such a slide to control more than one such bypass.